This lawsuit was filed by a bunch of small entities, most importantly the Libertarian Part of Mississippi, but not including Ken Paxton, and a judge already granted the injunction, so at least he thinks it has merit. By the letter of the law, it's pretty clearly unconstitutional, but under the last hundred years of precedence of allowing almost anything under the commerce clause, it's less clear. The biggest issue with the CTA is definitely that it affects some non-profits. Arguing that requiring local non-profits to report their managers to the feds is "regulating interstate commerce" is a stretch for even the most liberal courts.
"In 2021, the 21-page Corporate Transparency Act was tucked into a sweeping 1,482-page defense bill passed by Congress over President Donald Trump’s veto."
For you and I and everyone else on HN, the report is indeed trivial.
For many other small businesses, it is not.
There are millions of businesses which still operate largely on paper invoices and registers. Owners can't understand the text of the BOI website or the technical requirements, which includes registering for Login.gov.
Others are completely engrossed in their day to day operations and won't even hear about the dire warnings from an obscure federal agency. If they happen to check the Yahoo or Hotmail accounts they use for their business (often their personal communications too) they are just as likely to ignore it as spam.
That leaves it up to local accountants to fill the gap. Many don't know, or aren't keeping track of this because it's not a tax thing. When I asked my accountant about it she didn't answer for more than a month, and then sent out an explanation to all of her clients along with the following message:
If you want to engage us to prepare the BOI, our hourly rate is $250 will apply, with a one hour minimum. To minimize your fee, it is imperative for you to provide us with all the information required at once. Please contact our office if you wish us to prepare the BOI and we will send an engagement letter that will need to be signed and a list of documents we will need to prepare the BOI.
Ignoring the $500 per day fines and threat of prison time, can you see how dealing with this is a non-starter for a lot of small businesses?
I think you’re wrong. State, federal, local, speciality (food and alc), health, banking forms… as an entrepreneur there are already dozens of ways to screw up and miss something. Adding on extra things makes it easy to miss and adds on yet another burden.
How many forms how many times a year do we need to fill out to be able to be free commercially? Are you free if you can be fined and thrown in jail for not filling out paperwork?
It doesn't make sense to me that a state court should be able to issue a nationwide injunction.
And what's burdensome about it? (Now, a case could definitely be made for it being stupid duplicated effort. Every year I'm annoyed with FinCen over having to file a form about foreign accounts--almost all of the information also appears on our tax return. However, it's a minute or two of cut and paste once a year, no great burden.)
add-sub-mul-div|1 year ago
sjtgraham|1 year ago
To win a preliminary injunction you must show:
1. Likelihood of success on the merits
2. Irreparable harm without it
3. Balance of harms favors you
4. Injunction is in the public interest.
mminer237|1 year ago
travisporter|1 year ago
How?
insane_dreamer|1 year ago
ilamont|1 year ago
For many other small businesses, it is not.
There are millions of businesses which still operate largely on paper invoices and registers. Owners can't understand the text of the BOI website or the technical requirements, which includes registering for Login.gov.
Others are completely engrossed in their day to day operations and won't even hear about the dire warnings from an obscure federal agency. If they happen to check the Yahoo or Hotmail accounts they use for their business (often their personal communications too) they are just as likely to ignore it as spam.
That leaves it up to local accountants to fill the gap. Many don't know, or aren't keeping track of this because it's not a tax thing. When I asked my accountant about it she didn't answer for more than a month, and then sent out an explanation to all of her clients along with the following message:
If you want to engage us to prepare the BOI, our hourly rate is $250 will apply, with a one hour minimum. To minimize your fee, it is imperative for you to provide us with all the information required at once. Please contact our office if you wish us to prepare the BOI and we will send an engagement letter that will need to be signed and a list of documents we will need to prepare the BOI.
Ignoring the $500 per day fines and threat of prison time, can you see how dealing with this is a non-starter for a lot of small businesses?
Artistry121|1 year ago
How many forms how many times a year do we need to fill out to be able to be free commercially? Are you free if you can be fined and thrown in jail for not filling out paperwork?
It all adds up and doesn’t add any value.
encoderer|1 year ago
But why are we adding draconian punishments for new business paperwork?
Why are you ok with that part?
Why shouldn’t this just be a fine?
We really should not be ok with this if you wouldn’t personally be ok with a friend going to jail who failed to file. I, for one, am definitely not.
moralestapia|1 year ago
Could you share a source for that?
My accountant wants $160 to do that for me. If I could do it in 5-10 minutes I would definitely do it myself.
The problem that I have (and many other LLCs I'd guess) it's not that the report is complicated, it's that I (we) don't even know where to start ...
LorenPechtel|1 year ago
And what's burdensome about it? (Now, a case could definitely be made for it being stupid duplicated effort. Every year I'm annoyed with FinCen over having to file a form about foreign accounts--almost all of the information also appears on our tax return. However, it's a minute or two of cut and paste once a year, no great burden.)
mminer237|1 year ago
sieabahlpark|1 year ago
[deleted]